This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Approval for Westfield power station
12/06/2003
Plans for a 400 megawatt power station in Westfield, Fife were approved today.
The Westfield plan is for a gas-fired generating station situated on a brownfield site near a large open-cast coal mine.
Deputy Enterprise Minister Lewis Macdonald announced that approval would be given to a proposal from Fife Electric to construct and operate the station.
The decision to grant this consent followed a lengthy local consultation process, designed to ensure that the scheme will not have an unacceptable impact on the local environment.
The construction of the Westfield Power Station might be expected to bring 350 jobs to the area, and on completion, to support another 30 to 40 local jobs.
Historically, the site was used by British Gas as a development centre for technology associated with the gasification of coal and much of that infrastructure remains on site.
Another part of the Westfield site is used by Energy Power Resources Ltd. for a small biomass renewable energy project.